1. The tobacco companies hid the truth about the hazards and addictiveness of cigarettes from the American public. Industry double-talk notwithstanding, warnings about the health risks of smoking go back hundreds of years. ... Persuasive scientific evidence of tobacco's hazards, which began to emerge in the early 1930s, has received widespread attention since the ‘50s....
2. ‘Tobacco is tobacco.’ Although all tobacco products pose some health risks, cigarettes are by far the most hazardous. Cigars and pipes are considerably less dangerous....
3. People smoke because of advertising. There is remarkably little evidence that advertising plays an important role in getting people to smoke, as opposed to getting them to smoke a particular brand. ... None of the widely-publicized studies that have appeared in recent years, including the much-hyped research on Joe Camel, actually measured the impact of advertising on a teenager's propensity to smoke.
4. Smoking imposes costs on society. Because smokers tend to die earlier than nonsmokers, the costs of treating tobacco-related illness are balanced, and probably outweighed, by savings on Social Security, nursing home stays, and medical care in old age. Every analysis that takes such long-term savings into account ... concludes that 'social cost' cannot justify raising cigarette taxes.
5. Secondhand smoke poses a grave threat to bystanders. The evidence concerning the health effects of secondhand smoke is not nearly as conclusive as the evidence concerning the health effects of smoking. The research suggests that people who live with smokers for decades may face a slightly higher risk of lung cancer. ... In any case, there is no evidence that casual exposure to secondhand smoke has any impact on your life expectancy.
6. If secondhand smoke really is dangerous, smoking ought to be banned everywhere, except in private residences. Since almost all of the epidemiological evidence about the health effects of secondhand smoke relates to long-term exposure in the home, the fact that this is the one place exempted from current and proposed smoking bans suggests a residual concern for property rights. Yet business owners have property rights, too. If the government respected the right to establish rules about smoking on their own property, potential employees and customers could take such policies into account when deciding where to work or which businesses to patronize. ... [S]uch a voluntary system is the most appropriate way to deal with the conflicting demands of smokers and non-smokers....
7. States have a right to demand compensation from tobacco companies for the costs of treating smoking-related diseases under Medicaid. This claim ignores the long-term savings traceable to smoking (see Myth 4) and the tobacco taxes smokers already pay to cover the costs they supposedly impose on others....
8. The tobacco companies have been secretly manipulating the nicotine in cigarettes to keep smokers hooked. Nicotine control was never a secret. Several brands of denicotined cigarettes were introduced as early as the 1920s. Claims of reduced tar and nicotine have been conspicuous since the 1950s, and the yields of each brand have been advertised since 1971....
9. Smoking is ‘a pediatric disease.’ Although most smokers start as teenagers, the vast majority are, in fact, adults. And while it raises the risk of certain illnesses, smoking itself is a behavior--something people choose to do--not a disease....
10. Once people have started smoking, nicotine addiction prevents them from stopping. This is so contrary to everyday experience that it's amazing politicians and anti-smoking activists can say it with a straight face. In fact, there are about as many former smokers in this country as there are smokers, and almost all gave up the habit on their own, without formal treatment--usually by quitting cold turkey....